INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSES OF THE GOLD PANIC. Report of the Majority of the Committee on Banking and Currency. March 1, 1870

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1870. First Edition. Hardcover. Occasional staining, lower corner of page 377 torn away costing a few letters; front joint partly split but cover still firm, spine sunned with loss to head and tail, rubbing to extremities, some staining to edges. Very Good in Fine case. Publisher's plum cloth, covers ruled in blind, spine lettered in blind; housed in half burgundy morocco clamshell box with matching corners. SIGNED by the future President on the front free endpaper: "Respects of/J. A. Garfield." Throughout Garfield's congressional service, he was a staunch supporter of the gold standard, and garnered a reputation as a skilled orator. In 1865, he was placed on the House Ways and Means Committee, where he passionately voiced his opposition to the greenback, stating: “Any party which commits itself to paper money will go down amid the general disaster, covered with the curses of a ruined people.” In 1870, as chairman of the House Banking Committee under President U. S. Grant., Garfield led an investigation into the Black Friday Gold Panic scandal, Jay Gould’s and James Fisk’s attempt to corner the gold market. In the autumn of 1869, Gould and Fisk, both financiers, had tried to monopolize the U.S. gold supply, intending to make a fortune when the government needed to buy gold and redeem the paper "greenbacks" issued during the Civil War. The scheme included Grant's brother-in-law Abel Corbin and the Assistant Treasurer of the United States, Daniel Butterfield. Grant eventually discovered the plot and ordered the market flooded with government gold to break the speculators' stranglehold on the market. The report includes transcripts of Gould's and Fisk's testimony before the committee. While the investigation was inarguably thorough, no indictable offenses were found. Still, Garfield argued that the scandal was the result of the easy availability of fiat money greenbacks. Books signed by Garfield are among the scarcest of all presidents. Garfield served only four months as President before being shot by Charles Guiteau. His term was the second shortest served by a President.